Following news that Game of Thrones has been the most pirated TV show of the year, TorrentFreak has compiled another top 10 list that highlights the most pirated movies of the year. Surprisingly, the number one spot for 2012 is held by Project X with an estimated 8.72 million downloads, beating contenders that performed far better in the box office.

Second place was taken by Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol with 8.5 million downloads, while The Dark Knight Rises came in third place with 8.23 million copies pirated. Both films considerably outperformed Project X at the box office (worldwide gross of $100m), with The Dark Knight Rises pooling in over $1bn. Other popular films at the box office, such as The Avengers, Ice Age: Continental Drift and Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 1, round out the top 10.

One reason for Project X's success in the piracy realm could be attributed to the fact that it has been readily available for longer than other top performers. A quick search reveals that Project X has been available (in high quality) on torrent sites since June, equating to 1.45 million downloads per month since release; in contrast, The Dark Knight Rises is a recently available film (November), meaning there has been a far larger 4.11 million downloads per month. The same can be said for The Avengers - the biggest box office hit in the top 10 - with 2.02 million downloads per month.

Also of interest is that the amount of downloads for the top movies hasn't changed significantly compared to 2011, which saw Fast Five as the most pirated film and a combined total of 74.88 million downloads across the top 10 films. This year, the top 10 had a combined estimated download count of 77.45 million, representing a slight increase.

While there was said increase, it appears that the people of 2012 preferred to pirate films that were already successful at the box office, perhaps indicating that these films were pirated for a second viewing. The combined worldwide gross for the top 10 most pirated flicks of 2012 was $6.13 billion, compared to a measly $4.06 billion for 2011.